Vienna, Austria

A city with so many beautiful old buildings and stories and opera houses. I don't think four nights was enough but we tried really hard to see most of the special places and eat the best food that Vienna offers.

We walked around the city and visited many churches, museums and walked into small lanes with incredibly beautiful shops. One of the meals that we loved the most, for the atmosphere, the professional service and especially the food was Plachutta restaurant. We had walked past the restaurant many times and wondered why they were always super busy and we decided to check it out on our second night. We had their world famous dish Tafelspitz a beef broth with tender rump steak served with root vegetables, crispy potatoes, creamed spinach, horseradish and apple sauce and sour cream and bread; and it was fabulous!

According to our friend's recommendation, we went to eat sandwiches for lunch at Trzesniewski. Their sandwiches were amazing with many different toppings and eaten with a tiny glass of beer, called a Pfiff, such a great combination. We continued wandering around the city and tried coffee with beautiful, tasty cakes at Demel, a place that I'd highly recommend for cake and coffee.

On our last day, we went to the Leopold Museum to see Gustave Klimt paintings and those of other famous artists. What a museum with so many beautiful old and new paintings. We spent about 2 hours there and it was worth every minute of it. In the evening, we went to one of the must-do things that everyone does in Vienna, yes, we went to classical music performance. Because the opera season was in summer break we had to see a rather touristy Mozart and Strauss show, which involved both ballet and opera singing. The lady had an amazing voice and we all loved her performance so much. I'm glad I did it.

Secret Garden Restaurant, Saigon

I like this restaurant pretty much for its location on the top floor of an old building right in District 1. Secret Garden has a very simple design for both inside and outside on the terrace but I prefer sitting outside where I can enjoy the breeze even though it was in a very hot day in Saigon when I visited in May. The open space idea is great with wooden tables and chairs and some colourful flowers around that made me feel like I was in the small garden.

The restaurant has short menus for both food and drink which is great as I don't like too many choices. I love the simple way they cook the food but without compromising on flavour and authentic Vietnamese style. My favourite dishes the day I visited were the stir fried beef with càng cua vegetables and the crab broth served with pickled baby eggplants. Another rustic idea was the serving of drinks in small bottles with lemon grass, a slice of lemon and ice.... a very refreshing look!

I'd love to come back to the Secret Garden again on my next visit to discover more of their delicious food and drinks menu.

The Secret Garden 
158 bis Pasteur, 
District 1
Ho Chi Minh City

Salzburg, Austria

We spent two nights in Salzburg, where Mozart was born and raised. I had such a fantastic experience there walking around the old town, checking out lots of historic buildings and the view from the top of the mountain, where the Salzburg Castle is situated.

I love the old town and the river which reminded me a bit of Florence, Italy or Paris a bit. The old
town has so many beautiful gift shops and restaurants. We stopped at Cafe Tomaselli for coffee and cakes, which is a bit of an institution in the city.  We had the traditional coffee with whipped cream called melange which was fantastic and their cakes just blew my mind away, Delicious!!!!

               

We walked a bit more then took a cable car up to the top of the Salzburg Castle for the city view. It's very crowded as it should be, full of tourists like me. I took so many shots and stood there at first for about 10 minutes to appreciate the view and the green city and several different bridges connecting both sides of the city. Then we climbed up and walked inside to reach the top of the castle. The night before we left, because it was raining, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant and it was great food as well. The waitress was very helpful, recommending that we have calamari for starter then we had dumplings with bacon and crackling on top of sauerkraut. The second dish is very traditional for this part of Europe.

We also had the most famous Austrian dish Wiener Schnitzel, a flattened crumbed piece of pork pan-fried, served with boiled potatoes and cranberry sauce. On our last afternoon in the city, we just sat down in the square with a cold Steigl beer and enjoyed the last sunshine of the day. It was a fantastic 3 days in Salzburg!